So, today is Day One of my 40-day Kitchari fast. Kitchari, used as a cleanse and to support healing, will be the only food I’ll eat for this period. It is described as follows:
Kitchari (pronounced kitch-a-ree) is a staple comfort food of India, also known as khichari, khitchari, and kitchiri, and also sometimes referred to as kedgeree (though incorrectly, as that is an English dish). The word “kitchari’ means “mixture” or “mess” as in “mess of pottage” or “mess of stew” or porridge. The main ingredients are rice and mung beans, to which a variety of spices and other vegetables may be added. ( http://www.allaboutfasting.com/kitchari.html )

Perfect! Indian cholent: the Jewish equivalent culinary “mess,” the food that sends me to my happy place. I will eat only this for the next 40 days. During that time, from August 11-13, I will join my Muslim brothers and sisters as they move into their monthlong Ramadan fast and I will consume Kitchari only between sundown and sunrise. 40 days from today is Yom Kippur when, for the first time ever, I will fast as I stand in circle around a medicine wheel in a wooded place, near a stream, in community with others as a participant and officiant at a Forgiveness Ritual. And then I will break my 40 day Kitchari fast with a well-planned meal.

I don’t pretend to know what transformations will occur in me, in my community, and in the world during the course of these 40 days. But as I embark on this, having made the decision to go public with it and chronicle my experience as the days pass, I set the intention to be rigorously honest and open, to rid my body of war and intolerance as I rid it of toxins; that my fast, connecting Ramadan to Yom Kippur, connects me to my Muslim sisters and brothers and stands as a peace offering and a healing between two peoples who are ancestors of my bloodline. I also intend to use this as a portal to healing my body which I really do need in good working order as I move into the next phase of my life as a sacred activist.

During this time, I will have to negotiate a CD release party at a club, a Day of Reconnection with my community at One Spirit Interfaith Seminary, any number of family gatherings. I will have to work at my day job, and heal my low back which went out last night as I shlepped heavy packages from my car to my apartment, including two large glass containers of freshly made Kitchari which I’d cooked in the extraordinary country kitchen of my dear friend and sacred sister, Grace.

That’s it for now. Perhaps more later; certainly tomorrow.

Tikun Olam, Mitakuye Oyasin, All My Relations,
Riva